Teardrop Loop Earrings Samples

I recently came across some beaded earrings for sale on Etsy and thought they were really cute. The tops of the earrings are brick stitch like the fringe earrings that I make but they're made with regular seed beads instead of Delica beads. Instead of fringes on the bottom, the beads form concentric loops. I don't know if there is a pattern anywhere for this design but you can see them HERE in Yaira Carpenter's Etsy shop. If you know how to do brick stitch, these are very quick and easy to make. If you know of a pattern for these earrings, please let me know.

UPDATE: Someone sent me a link to a free tutorial for some very similar earrings. It's posted HERE on the Caravan Beads site and they're called "Denali Summit Earrings". The earrings are a bit larger than the ones that I made but it should be easy enough to make them smaller by using fewer beads in the initial row. I used nine instead of fourteen. Another difference that I see is that the first row in the tutorial is only a single bead wide. I made a double row by picking up two beads instead of one each time when doing the ladder stitch base.

UPDATE: This morning someone sent me a link to THIS YouTube video that shows how to make almost exactly these same earrings. The one difference that I noticed was that she doesn't make a double row of ladder stitch on the top part of the earring. Making a double row helps keep the sides of the triangle from flaring out at the bottom as much. The earrings still look nice. To make a double row of ladder stitch, simply pick up two beads for every one that she picks up in the video. Treat the pairs of beads as if they are one bead when doing the ladder stitch.

UPDATE: I just watched more of the video and she does something incorrectly that results in thread showing on the sides of the earrings. When you start a new row in brick stitch, you always pick up two beads and skip over to the second thread bridge. I found another YouTube video HERE that shows the correct way to start a new row and she does her ladder stitch foundation row with three stacked beads instead of two so you can also see how to do that. For these earrings, just use two beads instead of three. I also found two more YouTube videos HERE and HERE that show how to make similar earrings. I have not watched either one.

First I made a couple of sample earrings using 8/0 seed beads like the ones in the photos on Etsy. I don't mind the large size but I'm not keen on the chunky look of the beads. The one made with Miyuki beads isn't too bad but the one with Toho beads is a mess. So, I made several samples using 11/0 seed beads instead and I like them much better. I made some with Toho beads, some with Miyuki beads and even a pair with Czech seed beads. As usual, the Toho earrings came out the largest and the Miyuki earring is very petite. The one made with 10/0 Czech seed beads is somewhere between them in size.

I made one tiny change from the way that Yaira makes hers. She uses four seed beads for the smallest loop and I've used five on some of my sample earrings because I didn't like how there was a gap in the center of the loop with four beads. I suppose that she used an even number to prevent the beads from forming a point but I don't think it's very noticeable on the tiny 11/0 earrings.

• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Hybrid Moon Dust" (Y369)

• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Opaque Brown Tan Picasso" (4517)

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Hybrid Oxidized Bronze Clay" (Y864)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)

• 11/0 seed beads "Bright Brown Bronze" (unknown brand)

• 11/0 seed beads Czech "Opaque Terra Dusty Rose"
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Opaque Turquoise Amethyst Marbled" (1206)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Matte Metallic Patina" (2008)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Matte Metallic Patina" (2008)